1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to liquid crystal devices (LCDs) and, in particular, to LCDs with backlight assemblies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a display device converts electronic data into display information. The majority of display devices are either CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) display devices or flat display devices such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an organic electroluminescence display, or a PDP (Plasma Display Panel).
Currently, there is large market for flat display devices, which are typically smaller in both size and weight than the CRT type display device. One important type of flat display device is the LCD, which is characterized by high and uniform luminance, high efficiency, long lifetime, thin thickness, light weight, and low cost.
An LCD is operated by twisting an array of liquid crystal molecules in accordance with the occupied electric current to each molecule. A light, received from a light source of a backlight, passes through the array of liquid crystal molecules to display the image.
As to the light source, only one light source, for example, a lamp, is needed for small or middle-sized LCDs. However, as the size of LCD displays increases, such as with larger computer and television screens, more light sources, e.g., twenty light sources, are needed. To minimize the physical size of the light sources, the plurality of lamps is typically formed into an array in which each lamp is connected to one individual electrical source. If each of the plurality of light sources shares one or two electrical sources, i.e., connected to each other in parallel, the cost of manufacturing and the size of LCD can both be reduced. However, if one of the lamps malfunctions, the rest of the lamps may overcharge, resulting in additional malfunctioning lamps or causing fire of the whole LCD product.
Accordingly, there is a need for an LCD display system with a backlight that overcomes the disadvantages of conventional systems as discussed above.